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2011 Show Show, Day 1

2011 SHOT show2011 Shot Show, Day 1
We hit the floor around 10am. First stop, Benchmade. We got a good long look at all the new products. We think the Emissary is going to be a huge hit. It’s a solid little knife with great action. As many people know Benchmade recently acquired Lone Wolf and many of the Lone Wolf models are now manufactured in Benchmade’s facility. Good news. But here’s some great news:  These knives will actually have lower price points than before (i.e. the H&K Scorch series and the Benchmade NTK 3800).  Another knife to keep an eye out for is the Benchmade Tirage– it’s a great design. We also Jammed about our upcoming exclusive. We won’t say what it is yet, but we can promise that it’s really cool! More info on that in the coming weeks.
We swung by Lion Steel Knives to check out their new aluminum SR1-series. We think these are going to be another huge hit. They’re light, extremely well made and substantially cheaper than their titanium counterparts. Some people have expressed concerns about an aluminum frame lock, but Gianni assured us that the knife had been tested for nearly a year and held up with absolutely no issues.  We also had the pleasure of meeting Robert Yong Pelton at the Lion Steel Booth. We were able to get some first hand info about his DPx Hest knife. It looks like Lion Steel will be the manufacturer. We’ll do our best to get these knives stocked ASAP.
A quick detour over to CRKT allowed us to glimpse some of their new 2011 product lines. CRKT produces some exceptionally innovative models that are well made and well priced. We’re hoping to work more closely with them this year to expand our Columbia River Knife & Tool offerings. If you’re at the show stop by their booth and pick up a free wooden knife kit.
Later we met with Boker and took a look at their 2011 products. Some of these knives are already in stock and most are expected sometime in April/May. Boker has always been a great company to work with and we’re expecting another shipment of our exclusive dagger blade KALS74 series in the next few weeks. Additionally we’re working on some new colored handles for the KALS series.
We met up with David from Protech shortly afterward.  Few companies rival the detail and love that Protech puts into the custom versions of their knives. We were able to secure some truly exceptional custom pieces (they should show up on our website sometime next week in the Protech Custom Section). We talked with Protech about possibly producing a new knife model and got a peek at their upcoming OTF knife. Additionally we got a glimpse of their new manual folding TR-4. Good stuff.
We stopped by the Bear & Sons Cutlery booth to take a look at their new products. Bear & Sons have successfully managed to produce USA made butterfly knives at a sub $50 price point and we talked about doing a run in some custom colors. Bear is also offering a new butterfly knife trainer. These trainers have proven exceptionally popular and we’re excited to get another model. Bear has also added a new division to their company, Bear Ops, and they are gearing up to produce automatic knives for the military and law enforcement.
Later we met up with Darrel Ralph and Dirk Pinkerton at the Meyerco booth.  Few knife makers are as innovative and forward thinking as Darrel. We picked up a few production and custom prices from him (one is a butterfly knife that is simply mind blowing- look for it on the the site next week). We also took a look at his new offerings and placed a substantial order that should be trickling in over the next few months. There is going to be some really cool stuff (really cool). Darrel also hinted that he was hard at work on a double action OTF knife that would rival the toughness of the legendary Sand Shark! We were also excited to pick up some of Dirk’s custom pieces.
While we were at the Meyerco booth we tested out some of their 2011 offerings. We just want to take a moment and mention that we think Meyerco is doing a great job.  Their quality control has come so far and their products really represent value in the knife world. Bravo to them.
We made a few other pit stops here and there, but we’ll update this section with more details & links shortly. Another big day tomorrow. Stay Tuned.